UN Free & Equal campaign publishes intersex fact sheet
Overnight, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a long-awaited intersex fact sheet, as part of the Free&Equal campaign.
Nomenclature (page 2 of 3)
For an introduction to these issues, see our media and style guide
Tony Briffa writes on “Disorders of Sex Development”
I’ve been intending to provide my thoughts on the issue of the use of the term “Disorders of Sex Development” (“DSD”), and here they are.
Intersex people and identification documents
From a Bill before the ACT Assembly, a Queensland review shortly to commence, and the case of Norrie, a trans person seeking recognition of a non-binary gender identity, there is much speculation in Australia regarding birth certificates and identification documents. Internationally, relevant legal changes have taken place in Germany and Argentina. This briefing paper seeks to disentangle some of the issues.
Revised policy on identification documents
Read about bodily integrity, and eliminating harmful practices Read about eugenics, prenatal screening and elimination Read about discrimination, and stigma Read about identification documents, sex and gender Important note: this paper should not be regarded as a guide to our current policy on identification documents. Our approaches have been informed by community-building and evidence-building, and…
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Population figures
How many people have innate variations of sex characteristics (IVSCs), also known as intersex variations or differences of sex development?
Who are intersex people?
A briefing on our population, including working, Australian and international definitions.
“Sex and Gender Diverse” discussion paper on terminology
This paper was updated in September 2013, with a new final “impact” section that reflects the discontinuation of “SGD” and “DSG” terminology by the National LGBTI Health Alliance and many other organisations. We recommend browsing the Videos, Audio and Personal Stories sections of this website to gain familiarity with the diversity of intersex identities, genders,…
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The bluebanded goby: how a world view affects educational writing about hermaphroditism
Sociologist and intersex person Cary Costello has just published a great blog post at the Intersex Roadshow on how educational and scientific texts about a hermaphrodite fish are affected by the world view and beliefs of the writer. A central issue that makes life hard for intersex people is invisibility. Most people are unaware of…
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“A medical condition is only as real as its definition”, Georgiann Davis on DSD in Sociology of Diagnosis journal
Sociologist Georgiann Davis Ph.D. recently had published her paper on DSD in Sociology of Diagnosis, Advances in Medical Sociology, Volume 12, 155–182. The paper, “DSD is a perfectly fine term”: Reasserting Medical Authority Through a Shift in Intersex Terminology is a hugely important critique and highly recommended reading. The context Even though the diagnosis carried…
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Intersex is not a gender identity, and the implications for legislation
People born with intersex variations have many different gender identities; what we share in common is being born with atypical and stigmatised sex characteristics that do not meet stereotypical expectations for men or women.
‘ISGD’ and the appropriation of intersex
“I’ve been waiting for years for you to show up. It’s clear that transsexuals are not going to get our rights until intersexuals do.” (quoted by Suzanne Kessler, 1998) “Intersex is not one but many sites of contested being, [with] temporally sutured biomedical, political and social imperatives… ‘Intersex’ is a sign constantly under erasure, whose…
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Media and style guide
If you are writing about intersex people, our bodies, identities and human rights concerns, this page outlines why we use words the way we do.
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